Multi-channel air-sampling systems with alarm capability are known. One example of such a system employs a rotary valve type detector that draws a combined air sample from a network of microbore flexible tubing from various sectors in a protected area. The detector then filters and analyses the sample in a laser detection chamber. When smoke particles are detected in the combined sample, the system is switched to sequentially scan the different sectors via the rotary valve to identify the sector, or sectors, with the smoke condition. It follows that, although this arrangement provides for multiple entry points into a detector, the detector needs to work sequentially through the various sector samples in order to identify the sector from which the problematic sample has originated. This process of detection has shortcomings in that multiple samples can only be processed in series, while the detection process takes longer, limiting the number of channels that could be included within a single detector.
The present invention aims to provide an alternative multi-channel particle detector, which addresses some of the short-comings associated with the serial processing nature of the known systems.
Reference to any related art in the specification is not an acknowledgment or suggestion that this art forms part of the common general knowledge in any jurisdiction or that this art could reasonably be expected to be understood, regarded as relevant, and/or combined with other pieces of prior art by a skilled person in the art.